Beyond Here

Trust Mridula to always wake me up from my slumber. :-) Things have been hectic lately...or so is my excuse for not posting. In any case, let me finish up my Seattle account with a write-up on Pike Place market. On our last day in Seattle we visited this Farmer's market located in downtown Seattle. Our friends told us we could spend hours there, so unique is it. It has been open for almost 100 years now and is an open public market where local vendors sell their wares. There is food and flowers, knicks and knacks, clothes, spices and jams, paintings and jewelry - you think about it and its there. From these red-hot chilli peppers, To the coffee shops (BTW Seattle is known as the coffee capital of US, being home to Starbucks) To colorful flowers To equally wonderful paintings There was a lot to look at and explore at the Pike Place Market. We spent a good 3-4 hours here just looking around. And as luck would have it we even ran into one of our college friends whom we met after alm...

I will skip all the excuses as to why it took me so long to post this and cut straight to the story since it is pretty long. It all started about 4 years ago. My roommate then, Anju, went to Victoria and came back with a souvenir gift for me - a calendar with pictures of the Butchart Gardens. It hung on my wall the next year and each month I got to see what the various sections of the garden looked like. Often I kept turning back to the picture of the sunken garden. The Sunken Garden So whenever Sunit asked me my dream destinations ( he regularly checks my list, since it is everchanging), the one place that re-appeared again and again (besides the English countryside) was the Butchart Gardens at Victoria. All of my trip to Seattle, while I enjoyed all the National Parks, I kept looking forward - imagining what the gardens would be like at this time of the year. As luck would have it, our bus driver told us that the tulips were in full bloom and most of the garden was looking amazing. ...

Here's a sneak peak at my next post. Its about the Butchart Gardens we visited when in Victoria and since the place was so beautiful that atleast 2 posts be devoted to it, I thought it best to start off with a trailer. Here are some pictures to get you interested. The Butchart Gardens The experimental garden - where they experiment before they plant the real garden I have not seen more perfect tulips Or more perfect english daisies... But as the heading says the best is yet to be.

Our trip to the Olympic Peninsula did not quite turn out the way we expected it to go. It was raining - we were lucky our first 4 days in Seattle but the 5th day we were not so lucky. As we made our way up the hurricane ridge, we were driving among clouds. From where we were to see as far as Canada, this is what we saw. But as luck would have it, it seemed even the deer were lost in the clouds. We spotted them at each and every turn, probably about 30-40 in all - the deer were all around. We had to drive carefully because they just seemed to be everywhere. It was a slow ascent and descent for that reason but it gave us a lot of opportunity to photograph them at close quarters. We didn't even have to leave the comfort of our car. It was, however, pleasanter once we drove down the hurricane ridge. As if the rain was just waiting for us to descend. It was bright and sunny once we came down. We happened to stop at some small towns on our way back to catch the ferry back to Seattle. T...

When Sunit and I were planning the summer vacation and chose Seattle over Yellowstone, I was a bit disappointed. I was afraid that the place would not have as much scenic beauty as Yellowstone. But once we reached Seattle, and travelled to the mountains, I never wanted to leave the place and totally fell in love with it. The North Cascades Range Upclose On our third day, we drove from Randle to Seattle. We were to meet up with our friends (Vijay and Pragya) who were our hosts and planners for the rest of the trip. When VJ said we would be spending the day driving along North Cascades Scenic Highway (Route 20) I was thrilled. I had read about this scenic drive but had thought that because of a packed trip we would not be able to do it. So off we went to mountains. The Diablo Lake As we drove along, the sheer beauty and grandeur of the mountain range amazed me. Unlike Rainier and Helens which were lone mountains, this was a complete range of mountain after mountain. We were surrounded b...

Before I continue to post on the other 2 national parks we visited during our Seattle trip, I decided to add some color to my blog - who does not like color and on top of that if its flowers, then everyone loves it. So here goes. On our way to St. Helen from Randle where we had stayed overnight, Sunit and I chanced upon this Tulip field visible from the freeway. We decided to take the exit and see if we could make a short stop and if possible walk through the field. To our pleasant surprise the owner of the field had put up a board saying "Visitors are welcome. Please don't step on the flowers". I simply loved walking through the fields. We spent some time taking pictures and breathing in the view. Felt like those scenes I had only seen in pictures of tulip fields in Switzerland or Netherland. Except that this was not a picture - it was picture perfect.

Our second day in Seattle, we headed to Mount St. Helens or as the Native Indians call it, Loowit - Lady of Fire. Riffe Lake - on way to St. Helens Sunit and I were both excited. We had first heard about St. Helens in October 2004 when it was all over the news - apparently the mountain was spewing up gas and debri again after a span of almost 25 years. People from all over the country were travelling to see if St. Helens would erupt again. The last time it had erupted in 1980, the whole north side of the mountain had disintegrated and flown down, burning the surrounding forests, killing about 1.5 million animals and 57 people in an already evacuated area. We were glad we had planned to visit the mountain on the day the Johnston Ridge Observatory (closest to the mountain) was due to open for the season. The Observatory is but 5.5 miles from the mountain. We drove on towards the mountain. At the lower reaches, we could see forests with fairly young trees and occasional signboards indica...

View of the drive to Mount Rainier On our first morning in Seattle, a clear sunny day, we set off for THE mountain in the area - Mount Rainier. Alder Lake - Comes on way to Rainier Mount Rainier is the 5th oldest Natinal Park in United States. It is classified as one of the most seismically active volcano in the Cascade Range, second to only Mount St. Helens I guess. National Park Entrance It was easy to catch glimpses of the mountain from far off. Its height (14400 ft approx) is not much compared to Mount Everest (29000 ft approx). The reason it stands out is because the surrounding peaks and areas are not comparable in height. So it looks like this gargantuan presence standing above everything else in the skyline of Western Washington. First glimpse of the mountain Plus it is spanked by glaciers on all sides, actually about 36 miles of glaciers cover the mountain. These glacial valleys further cause the mountain to look even grander. One good thing is that Mt. Rainier has not been co...

Sunit and I just got back from a week long trip to Seattle. And what a trip it was. We were lucky to experience sunny weather for the most part of the trip. Days were just beginning to warm up and there were practically no summer crowds yet. Everything was green and the snow was just beginning to melt in the mountains so there were a lot of snow capped peaks to see, and numerous waterfalls had appeared and were really full. We got to visit 4 National Parks around Seattle and a day trip to Victoria to see the Butchart gardens. And the last day we saw some of the downtown areas of Seattle. The Seattle skyline on a cloudy day The city itself has a fairly small downtown - few blocks and you can walk it all on foot. And there is always this towering presence of mountains all around, especially Mt Rainier which is a permanent fixture of the skyline on any clear day. The Space Needle The Space Needle stands tall and elegant, a little apart from the downtown and provides wonderful views of the...